‘They’re putting 4G on the Moon but I can’t even get signal in Putney’
Residents of one estate in west London have been spotted dangling out of windows in order to get signal. Now, as it emerges a mobile network has been deployed on the Moon, Bryony Gooch reports on the frustration of living in the capital but never having any service
News this week that 4G connectivity is being brought to the Moon may be considered a giant technological leap for mankind, but for residents of one estate in west London, it represents yet another frustration in a long-running battle to get network coverage.
“There is an irony that you can get signal on the Moon but none in some parts of London,” says Fleur Anderson, the MP for Putney who has been campaigning for more phone masts to be erected in the area.
She added that the lack of signal had impacted constituents during the pandemic and even affected people’s abilities to apply for jobs.
One of her constituents, David Henderson, knows the area’s network coverage issues only too well. He’s lived on the Ashburton Estate for 20 years and says the area has always been a “dead zone” for phone reception, but as mobile phones have taken over from landlines as the primary mode of communication, it’s become a much bigger problem.
“All my friends try to call me by mobile phone and they just can't get through at all,” the 61-year-old tells The Independent. “I do tell them to phone the home number, people still forget and it just goes straight through the voicemail.”
It’s not just contacting friends and family that’s an issue, Mr Henderson adds. Basic services, such as accessing a bank account from a phone, often require signal too.
“Two-factor verification is very well used these days, which needs a text message to be sent from the bank,” he says. “Text messages just don’t come through. It could take 10 minutes, it could take 20 minutes, it could be the next day.
“Delivery companies want a mobile number to contact you and they can’t get through if there’s an issue with deliveries.
“Getting an emergency number can be difficult as well because there’s no signal.”
Putney isn’t the only area in London – let alone the rest of the UK – suffering from signal issues. An investigation from the London Centric found it was far more difficult to build new phone masts in the city than anywhere else in the country.
A 2023 report from Ofcom meanwhile found that seven per cent of the country does not have any 4G coverage, while a separate study conducted by the research firm Opensignal found that UK mobile users had the worst average 5G download speeds of all G7 countries.
The journey to full signal coverage across the country has been long and slow, with numerous pledges made over the years.
Boris Johnson pledged in 2019 to make poor mobile phone signals a “thing of the past” with a fast-tracked £1bn investment to eradicate not-spots in rural areas.
The “Shared Rural network” plan involved erecting new masts and existing infrastructure shared between the four mobile phone providers: O2, Three, Vodafone and EE. However, last month it emerged that the government was scaling back the number of new mobile phone masts to be built as part of the plan from 260 to just 60.
For Mr Henderson, however, there is some positive news on the horizon. His revealed that Vodafone had “stepped up” to put phone masts on rooftops in the area following consultations with a number of telecom companies.
“It’s good to find out they’re planning on putting a mast up now,” he said. “It’s just a matter of when.”
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